sab.bat.i.cal: a rest from work, or a hiatus, often lasting from two months to a year.

well, how does 7 months sound?

we took an unintentional seven month sabbatical!

but we are back in full force, maybe. at least it is one of my new year's resolutions.

and if not, i guess you can plan on reading a whole year's worth again next new year. kidding.

new year's #3

[pizza places]

so this is our third new year's together. i want to do a quick recap of all 3. we have a tradition of going to a new pizza place every year. i have been very pleased with all of them so far....

december 31st, 2008 - the pie, salt lake city underground

december 31st, 2009 - settebello, salt lake city

accompanied by doug, nancy, mark, kelly

december 31st, 2010 - the slab, provo

delicious. we tried pepperoni, hawaiian, and thai chicken.

picture i took before i left the camera at home...oops

long live the new year's eve pizza tradition.

fast forward

okay so i've covered summer... which took a long time.

so i'm gonna fast forward through fall and christmas.

we had a good fall semester. i am doing a visual arts minor and 10.5 of my 18 credits were in art classes. it was so much fun. i will finish my minor if i go spring term, which is what i want to do. but if i'm too burned out, i can graduate in april and just be a few credits short of my minor. we'll see.

anyway, back to fall. andrew's flag football team WON THE CHAMPIONSHIP!! i don't know if you know what a big deal this is to BYU intramural boys. it's a bigggg deal. ha ha. it was a super fun season. andrew even made a highlight reel of their season. i would post it here but it's saved on andrew's computer..

i took art and sewing classes and was very happy doing things i liked. it was my most successful semester of college i'd say. also my busiest.

here is a random sampling of some of my art projects. they may not look that good on the computer, but what do i have to lose? these are all pieces from my 2-D design class, which was my favorite. i am gonna brag now, but just for a second, and it's more just funny than bragging. i had two pieces chosen for the student show. then one got moved down to the first floor which i guess was a special honor or something. then it got a juror's award and i got a $50 gift certificate! the funny part is it was just tons and tons of colored squares of paper arranged in a color study. i think i could have done it when i was 8. but still, i'll take credit.

we spent thanksgiving with the pickups in provo. we were able to see everyone (except the karpowitz family) and even meet brian's brother-in-law's family from spain, who were the cutest. thanksgiving was really fun and it went by super fast, as always.

christmas was here in alpine. we were originally planning on going to texas this year, but our plans changed when brian's wedding was scheduled for january in SPAIN! so we happily traded our christmas plans away. we had a nice christmas break and spent some time relaxing. okay so actually i spent nearly all my time sewing and crafting, but i'd take that over relaxing any day ha ha.

my favorite part of the break was my snow day with andrew. we went across the street to the empty lot lovingly referred to as "lot 9" which is a scary mess of scraggly trees and rocks. but there are some steep hills so andrew and i built a snow "rollercoaster". gosh why didn't i take pictures? it was great. we basically made a bobsledding course and then went down it on sleds.

my family also went up to idaho and got to visit both my aunt kristen's family and also the seables. it was so fun to go christmas shopping with my little cousins and we also got to have a fun night out with aaron and marcia. i always love visiting them in idaho.

okay i think that's it for my catch up. i have lots of january news that hopefully gets documented soon...

there's a first time for everything

our first anniversary was in august. it was fun, i like anniversaries. it is amazing to reflect on our little marriage. we are closer than ever and we are really learning how to make it work. we are really happy. i'm thankful for our first year of marriage.

andrew pulled a little surprise on me and we got all dressed up to go to dinner at biaggi's, where we had our wedding lunch. that place is sooo good. i love the idea of going back there whenever we can. we had so much fun that night. i don't really remember specifics anymore, i just remember laughing a lot.

kinda a scary picture, ha ha, but at least you can tell we're happy.

oh yeah, as a little surprise of my own, i took andrew to a john mayer concert for our anniversary. he is a weirdo, but at least his music is good.

surprise surprise

after his internship at ernst & young, andrew was offered a full-time position with them. if you remember this post, andrew had lots of options when deciding where to intern. he felt kinda conflicted when he had to choose and sign to intern at EY. he had also liked PWC (both are "big 4" accounting firms) but chose to go with EY. PWC said that when he was considering full-time opportunities to get in touch with them.

long story short, and with some help from a PWC friend in allen, andrew was given full-time offers from both big 4 firms. that is quite a big deal because it is not the way it usually works in the accounting recruiting biz. he is a real pot stirrer. what can i say, he is the shiz. ha ha. anyway, andrew chose to go with PWC for a few reasons, and so he will be starting with them september 2011 in dallas!

summer

[playing catch up]

our summer treated us right. we spent most of it in texas, where andrew did his internship with ernst & young in their dallas office. we were so lucky to be able to live with his parents, doug and nancy, in allen, so we could save up some money.

living there has its perks! we got to see brian before he left for spain, travis when he got home from his mission in mexico city, marcia when she visited for melvina's funeral, and mike and malinda with their family when they came for vac

ation! count em, folks, that's the whole family!

makeovers with my two favorite stylists, mckenzie and hailee:

we were there to be at a special funeral for andrew's grandma melvina, there when doug retired!, there when brian announced he was getting married!! and there holding down the fort while doug and nancy spent time at their house in utah. did i mention that they have a beautiful backyard and pool, brand new furniture set, and flat screen? ha ha... needless to say we didn't leave the house much, except to play tennis. we had so much fun relaxing, swimming, running, playing tennis, BBQing, and hanging out with family. i could get used to texas summers.

i also piggybacked my own trip home to utah at the same time doug and nancy left. i got to see one of my best friends get married!!

meagan HARMAN!

ps. while i was back in dallas, another one of my best friends got married, kinzie HANCOCK! i was so sad to miss her wedding. we love her and her husband, brad. (she is the second from the left)

and live like a teenager again. without andrew there, living in my old room, hanging out with my single friends, i thought i was in high school again! it was weird but so much fun..

rafting adventure with tierani

paddling with tennis rackets... works.

the funniest part was when an old man stopped us and very sternly told us that we should be wearing life jackets (a valid point) because if we fell in the water, we could get "the cramps". ha.

then i went back to dallas for the last couple of weeks of andrew's internship. the end of his internship came with a conference in florida at disney world! which i was not invited to :), and since i would be flying home sooner or later anyway, and i didn't want to be home alone, i flew back early. i got to help throw my parents a joint 50th birthday party and surprise andrew by repainting/designing my 13-year-old girl bedroom that we now call home.

with the help of tierani, i textured all the walls with drywall mud and then painted. i did a gray accent wall and a very light green on all the other walls. although in these pictures you can't distinguish the colors, in real life it is much more obvious.

living in one bedroom has its upsides and downsides. we will be extremely happy when we finally have a place of our own (it will be like a year and a half of living with parents when we are through) but it really has been great. we have my bedroom set up like a little studio apartment, with a bed, TV, couch, and desk. luckily we have the walk in closet that connects my room with larken's, that larken has let us have to ourselves. we also have a connected bathroom which helps a lot. it is hilarious because my parents' house is huge, but we spend almost all of our time in our cozy one bedroom.